Ha Noi (VNA)- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has decided to provide loans of 100 million USD for a project to support a national development strategy on small and medium sized enterprises in Viet Nam.

The loans will be used to fund an accounting system for target businesses to help reduce the costs and risks in applying for loans, thus improving businesses' approach to creditors.

Also a major part of the loans will be used to support the Vietnamese Government to develop technical and industrial standards that meet international financial institutions' requirements as well as to establish an on-line data base to dispatch that information to interested businesses.

The project will be carried out in two sub-projects. The first sub-project, valued at 60 million USD, will be deployed from November, 2004 to May, 2006. The loan term is set at 24 years, including 8 grace years. The interest rates are fixed at 1 percent in the first eight years and 1.5 percent in the following years.

The second, worth 40 million USD, will begin in continuation of the first one.

The loan includes a grant of 1.4 million USD as technical aid, part of which is to train project executives in management skills.

Surveys conducted by ADB showed that small and medium-sized enterprises make up more than 90 percent of private businesses in Viet Nam.